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ind of idiot had she been to imagine that Nick would have the slightest interest in her, other than a quick roll in the hay? Maybe not so quick! But not much more than a one-night stand nevertheless.
Nick had hurt her at sixteen, his scathing comments had cut deep into her psyche, and she had deliberately denied her own sexuality for years. She had finally woken up to the fact after her broken engagement. She had realised she had dated Bob because he was no sexual threat; it wasn’t surprising their one attempt at sex was a disaster, and she blamed herself for it. But the real blame lay with Nick, and, fool that she was, she had let him hurt her again almost a decade later. Was she never going to learn? He was Nick Menendez, a famously successful captain of industry, and an equally renowned womaniser.
In the sophisticated society he belonged to she had simply been a pleasant diversion for him, she realised bitterly. He had said he wanted her, but he did not trust or respect her, never had. Sex was all he wanted, to pass the time during a boring night flight, and until his long-time girlfriend turned up the next evening.
What on earth had she been thinking? Liza shook her head and slanted a glance at him with puzzled eyes, trying to fathom how one man could have so easily persuaded her to act so out of character. His handsome features were granite-hard and totally concentrated on the road ahead as he drove the Land-Rover way above the speed limit.
She had served her purpose, to make Sophia jealous and to provide a bit of casual sex on the side. She swallowed hard against the acid taste of shame that filled her mouth. Her bitter gaze slid down to his hand on the gear stick, lean and strong, and she experienced a sudden rush of déjàvu.
Forty-eight hours ago she had been in the exact same position, but now she knew exactly what his hand felt like on every pore of her skin. She shuddered inwardly, her eyes misting with tears, and hastily she turned in her seat and looked out of the window again. Liza was emotionally exhausted, bone-deep tired—she had hardly slept in two nights—but she knew she had to get a grip on herself before they reached Malaga.
No way was she letting him see how much he had hurt her again…
As the road wound up high into the sierras Nick cast a sidelong glance at the sleeping Liza; her head had fallen against his arm, and a golden rope of hair lay on his chest. Dios, she looked about fifteen. What the hell was he doing? And he quickly turned his attention back to the twisting road.
Last night kidnapping Liza had seemed like a great idea. He was definitely losing his marbles… But not enough to turn around and head back towards Malaga Airport…
He had already lied to his friend Carl, and for a man who took pride in his honour he had behaved outrageously. He was a brilliant entrepreneur because he never invested in anything without a thorough investigation of the company and weighing up all the costs. He was good at dangerous sports, but only because he had the sense to take every reasonable safety precaution. His relationships with women were successful because he was generous, laid down the rules at the beginning and never got emotionally involved. He never acted on impulse…
Nick shook his dark head in bemusement. He had broken every one of his own tenets of behaviour, and why? Because of Liza; the sight, the feel, the touch of her affected him like no other woman. She turned his brilliant, decisive mind into mush.
‘Dios!’ He was halfway up a mountainside on his way to a secluded ski-chalet, with a sexy woman who might or might not be a criminal. Had he finally lost his mind? But a sidelong glance at the sleeping Liza and he had his answer. She was exquisite, and so innocent in sleep. His gaze moved over her beautiful face, her softly parted lips, and his chest heaved with a scarcely remembered emotion, a throwback to the past.
She looked just as she had at fifteen when they had taken the horses and gone on a picnic. Liza had been thrown from her horse, and he had jumped from his and cradled her head in his arms; her eyes were closed and for one terrible second he had thought she was dead. The same fear he had felt then Nick had felt again last night when Carl had told him two of the gang were still on the loose and could possibly target Liza.
It did not matter what she was or what she did, for some bizarre reason he was automatically programmed to protect her.
He manoeuvred the four-wheel-drive between a narrow cut in the cliff and brought it to a halt outside a log cabin. He leant back in the seat and glanced down as the golden head slipped forward, and Liza wriggled back against the constraints of the seat belt, and flung a hand across his lap.
Nick dragged in a sharp breath as his body tightened at her casual touch. She was going to wake up any second, and she was going to blow her top when she did. The thought was oddly exciting, but then everything about the mature Liza excited him, he wryly acknowledged. Even so, he was in no hurry to have the argument with her he knew must follow.
He looked out at the picturesque chalet nestled in the small clearing between the magnificent snow-covered mountains, and back to the sleeping woman. With Liza’s head on his shoulder and hand on his thigh, the only sound in the silence was their own breathing. It was a moment to feed the soul…a moment of perfect peace…
Slowly Liza’s eyes fluttered open; her hand was curved around a hard male thigh and her head pillowed against a comforting shoulder. She glanced sleepily up through the thick fringe of her lashes and blushed scarlet. Oh, my God! She had fallen asleep against Nick. Jerking up in the seat and avoiding looking at him, she blurted, ‘Oh, good, we have arrived.’
‘Glad you like it.’ Nick unfastened his seat belt, pocketed the car keys and leapt to the ground. Any second now she was going to realise where she was, or wasn’t! he thought with black humour quirking the corners of his mobile mouth, and he was taking no chances on her trying to drive off in a rage.
Glad! What was to like about an airport? And only then did Liza become aware of her surroundings. Her head swivelled ninety degrees each side, and, still not believing what she was seeing, she unfastened her seat belt and turned to look behind her; perhaps the airport… In the distance was a collection of buildings, and a ski lift! She turned back, her eyes widening to their fullest extent in shocked amazement.
Towering snow-clad mountains surrounded her, and a timber cabin and a couple of pine trees were directly in front of the Land-Rover. A sudden rush of air made her shiver and, as she glanced sideways, her stunned blue gaze clashed with narrowed black. Nick was holding open the door, his hand outstretched.
‘Jump down and let’s get the gear unloaded.’
‘Jump down—are you mad? Have you taken leave of your senses? This isn’t the airport. Where the hell are we?’ She shot the questions in quick-fire succession, unable to believe her own eyes.
‘Now, Liza, calm down,’ Nick said smoothly, reaching for her.
Slapping his hands away, she yelled, ‘Get your hands off me, you…you…crazy…’ she yelled, shaking her head; she could not find an expletive bad enough to describe the sheer arrogance of the man. ‘Calm down?’ she screeched like a parrot. ‘I will calm down when you get yourself back in this damn Land-Rover and drive me to the airport.’
Suddenly she was flying through the air and deposited on her feet, but held hard against Nick’s mighty frame. She lashed out with fists and feet, anything she could use. ‘Let go of me.’ She struggled violently. ‘I don’t know what your game is but I am not playing it any more…I am going back,’ she declared vehemently while her pulse rate accelerated off the scale in a mixture of fury and fatal attraction to the proximity of Nick’s hard body.
‘You aren’t going anywhere,’ Nick snarled as a rather good right landed on his jaw, and, swinging her off her feet, his arms tightened savagely around her, pinning hers to her side, his mouth crushing the furious retaliation she was about to utter back down her throat.
She tried to resist, tried to bite him, but in seconds, to her shame, she was succumbing to the burning excitement of his kiss, even as a tiny voice of reason told her she was courting pain by giving in to his powerful passion. ‘Put me down,
’ she gasped when he allowed her to speak. ‘I’m leaving.’
Nick merely laughed, and she shivered as he slowly lowered her down the long length of his muscular body. When her feet touched the ground she tried to pull free, but he was kissing her senseless again. She kicked his shin, anything she could reach, and when he finally ended the kiss she was breathless and mortified by her speedy surrender.
